GLOBAL MARKETS-Asian shares and dollar steady ahead of U.S. jobs data

October 21, 2013|Reuters

* Asia shares steady, Aussie shares at 5-yr high for 3rd day

* Dollar steady against euro, yen after recent battering

* U.S. nonfarm payrolls due out at 1230 GMT

By Dominic Lau

TOKYO, Oct 22 (Reuters) - Asian shares steadied at afive-month high and a recently battered dollar stabilised aheadof a key U.S. jobs report later on Tuesday that will give cluesas to whether the Federal Reserve will start withdrawingstimulus this year.

The data was originally scheduled for Oct. 4 but its releasewas delayed by the 16-day U.S. government shutdown.

Many analysts expect the U.S. central bank to delayunwinding the $85 billion-a-month programme given the governmentshutdown and the possibility of another bitter U.S. budget fightbetween Democrats and Republicans early next year.

"We doubt that the data, even if strong, can reverse themore dovish sentiment about the Fed," analysts from SocieteGenerale wrote in a note, adding that the data did not capturethe impact of the two-week shutdown.

A senior Fed official said on Monday that it will be "tough"for the Fed to have sufficient confidence in the strength of theU.S. recovery by its meeting in December to start reducing itsbond buying.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 inched up 0.2 percent,hitting a five-year high for a third day in a row. It was ontrack to log a sixth-day of gains, which will be its longestsuch run since July.

Investors may be reluctant to make aggressive bets, however,after U.S. stocks ended little changed overnight, partly onconcerns that equities have become overpriced after the Standard& Poor's 500 index's run to record highs last week.

According to Thomson Reuters Datastream, the S&P 500 indexcarried a 12-month forward price-to-earnings ratio of 14.5,above a 10-year average of 14.

Economists in a Reuters survey forecast 180,000 jobs wereadded in September compared with 169,000 jobs created in August,while the unemployment rate is expected to remain at 7.3percent.

"A reading anywhere in the 160,000 to 190,000 range wouldprobably be fairly neutral with respect to near-term U.S. dollardirection given the data pre-dates any impact from the Octobershutdown," analysts from BNP Paribas wrote in a note

"We remain short euro/dollar and sterling/dollar headinginto the release, looking for gradual improvement in U.S. dataand dovish messaging from European policy makers to revive thepolicy divergence theme which benefited the dollar in the secondquarter," they added.

The dollar was at $1.3674 to the euro, off aneight-month low of $1.3704 marked on Friday, and was holdingsteady at 98.18 yen after bouncing 0.4 percent in theprevious session.

Against a basket of major currencies, the dollar gained a touch.

U.S. crude prices dipped 0.2 percent to about $99 abarrel, hitting a near four-month low and adding to the previoussession's 1.6 percent decline.